


I Am Reaching But I Fall, And The Stars Are Black And Cold

by creatureofhobbit



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-11
Updated: 2014-02-11
Packaged: 2018-01-11 22:06:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1178496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/creatureofhobbit/pseuds/creatureofhobbit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by this quote by Richard Bach posted at 1_million_words: "Laughing on the way to your execution is not generally understood by less advanced life-forms, and they'll call you crazy." Also inspired by the Les Mis song Javert's Suicide. Snow laughs to himself as he makes his way to his execution, believing it will not take place, then ceases to see the funny side once he realises he owes his life to Katniss.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Am Reaching But I Fall, And The Stars Are Black And Cold

Snow chuckled to himself as he was led to what everyone persisted in saying was his execution. He knew full well that Miss Everdeen was not going to shoot him today. Maybe she didn’t know this herself, as she made her way to where all of Panem believed she was about to carry out his execution. But she would come to understand what he now knew himself.

He had believed that he and Miss Everdeen shared nothing at all. Now he understood they had more in common than they thought: they were both pawns in Alma Coin’s Games in the same way that Katniss had been a pawn in his own. 

He would not fool himself that there was any chance he would retain his power when Katniss killed Coin. The days of the Capitol, and of his rule, were over. But he could hope to escape from that room today.

Snow continued to smile to himself as they marched him to the post where he would be tethered. He hoped Coin was enjoying her moment of glory. It would be her last. He laughed as the crowds around him cried out for his blood, as Coin smiled beatifically out at the crowds. Snow alone knew that that smile was going to be wiped off her face.

He watched Katniss Everdeen’s face, nodded knowingly as he realised that she was about to figure out that he was not responsible for the bomb that had killed her sister.

Any minute now, he told himself, as Katniss pulled back the string of her bow.

The arrow met its mark. President Coin fell dead.

As pandemonium broke out amongst the people of Panem as they slowly realised what had happened, Snow finally permitted himself to laugh out loud. Katniss had done exactly as he had predicted; she had saved him.

The laughter died on his lips as he began to understand what that meant; that he owed his life to Katniss Everdeen, the one girl he had set out to destroy, the symbol of the destruction of Panem as he knew it. He could feel the blood from the sores in his mouth erupting, sticking in his throat, and he did nothing to prevent it. The idea of owing his life to her stuck in his throat just as much as the blood did, the blood whose taste would always remind him of his enemies. Katniss had made herself one of them; yet she was now the one who had kept him alive.

Katniss had saved his life, yet she had killed him anyway.


End file.
